Dandelion is such a versatile plant. I don’t even consider it a weed. Around the age of 12 we moved to rural Ohio. I grew up in the military and we moved every three years. My dad decided he wanted to spend this particular move off base and it was such a fun experience. We had space and woods and gardens; and a lovely old neighbor who took us under her grandmotherly wing. She taught us how to make dandelion blossom tea, to sauté the young spring leaves in butter and that in the fall the roots could be dug up and roasted for tea or eating too. She taught us about gardening and other wild edibles but I especially remember the lessons on dandelions.
We moved of course and I forgot all about the humble dandelion. I would occasionally notice it’s bright yellow cheerful bloom in sidewalk cracks or farmer’s field and know that I knew something special about it but I didn’t renew my interest in harvesting and utilizing it until I was in my early thirties and we finally moved onto our acreage we had been working so hard for for six years.
If you’re interested to read about all the benefits of dandelion and the lovely things you can do with the entire plant, you might enjoy my article here.
Today I’m sharing how I infuse oils with dandelion blossoms and make cold process soap with dandelion tea.
This is a really easy recipe and super satisfying to make. I make a few batches with fresh spring dandelions; and cure my bars on top of my kitchen cabinets to add to handmade Christmas gift bags. I love how gentle this soap is for everyday handwashing, it can be used as a body/face soap too.
If you’re new to cold process soap making you might be interested to check my beginner Tallow Dish Soap recipe with all of the precautions, equipment and clean up break down. For this recipe, I’m just sharing the weights/recipe with general instructions.
Dandelion Soap
9 ounces frozen dandelion tea
4.78 ounces sodium hydroxide
20 ounces infused dandelion oil
(mix of 10 ounces olive and 10 ounces avocado oil although I have done all avocado or all olive oil amd had it work out fine too.)
10 ounces coconut oil
After trace:
1 TBSP tallow
40 drops lavender EO
40 drops lemon EO
40 drops vanilla EO
(you can use whatever essential oils you prefer. In total the addition of essential oils was about 1/2 tbsp.)
2 tbsp French yellow clay
(For the addition of the clay, I pour a little less than half my batter into my mold, then mix the clay into the batter in my bowl, then pour the clay batter onto the creamy white batter for a variegated color change. This is optional and you could just add the clay to the entire batter for a solid yellow color too.)
Begin by harvesting and processing dandelion blossoms.
I tear off the green bottom part so I’m just getting the petals into my oil infusion.
For this recipe I’m doing about one cup of dandelion petals to 10 ounces of oil. This recipe needs 10 ounces of olive oil and 10 ounces of avocado oil.
2 cups of dandelion blossoms
10 ounces of olive oil
10 ounces avocado oil
I added my petals to my jar, place my jar on a scale, zero out the scale and weigh in my oils.
I doubled my oil and petals because I’m making two batches of soap and some whipped face balm too, which I plan to share soon in another post.
Once my oils were weighed into my jar, I capped it and placed it on a window sill for about two weeks; turning/gently shaking the jar daily.
Now for the tea. If you’re new to soap making, it’s very important to freeze herbal tea otherwise the lye will burn it and turn it a yucky orange color. Here’s how I prepare tea for soap.
I need 9 ounces of tea for this recipe, so I used about one cup of dandelion petals and roughly poured in 9 ounces of boiling water to steep. Once cooled, I strain and weigh out 9 ounces of tea into a two cup Pyrex measuring cup, then place in my freezer. When I’m ready to make my soap I just pour my weighed sodium hydroxide onto the frozen tea and slowly melt and dissolve.
Now that the oils are infused and the dandelion tea is frozen it’s time to make soap.
Once I weigh out the sodium hydroxide I carefully and slowly pour it onto my frozen tea; only adding a little at a time and taking time to stir consistently as it melts and dissolves.
This part takes a bit of time and as it’s melting I weigh out my oils and go back and forth between adding lye and stirring to melt and dissolve.
Weigh out the 20 ounces of infused oil, I do this through a sieve into the bowl I’m mixing my soap in.
Now zero the scale and add 10 ounces of coconut oil to the bowl.
Before mixing the soap batter, measure or weigh out the additional ingredients so they’re ready to add once you hit trace. This recipe works up fairly quickly and the batter gets very thick so you want these ingredients weighed/measure out for quick addition.
I’m not heating or taking temps, but if you’re wanting to be more precise you could weigh your oils into a stainless stock pot and heat to about 100 degrees, your lye solution will be fairly cold due to the frozen tea but you could add it to your heated oils and mix, bringing the temp to about 115 F as you reach trace. I’ll share how I heat my soap batch to reach a bit of a gel phase later on in this post. Reaching gel phase helps to mitigate the production of soda ash on your bars and creates a harder bar of soap.
Add the tea/lye mixture slowly to the oils and mix thoroughly before switching to an immersion blender.
Once you reach trace add in the tallow and oils and mix well.
Pour about a fourth of the batter into the mold, tapping the mold down on the counter a bit to flatten it and spread the batter evenly.
Now add the clay the rest of the batter and mix well.
Once mixed well, pour the clay batter onto the creamy white batter. You could swirl them together or try to keep a more delineated line between the two colors. Spread and smooth the batter. If you want you could make some pretty designs on top with a fork or spoon and I’m adding some dried strawflower petals.
Since I’m soaping at such low temperatures I’m not too concerned about cracking. I do put this loaf in my fridge to harden for an hour or so before placing on the back of my stove to heat up and go through a bit of a hardening gel phase though.
I leave the soap to set up overnight and un mold and cut the next day.
I like to bevel the sides of each bar with a veggie peeler just to give the bars smoother edges. Place the cut bars in a cool dry place to cure for 4-6 weeks.
I hope you find time to enjoy making your own handmade batch of dandelion soap!
Warmest blessings,
Ashley
